MFA Program In Advanced
Photographic Studies
Application Deadline: January 7, 2011
International Center of Photography
1114 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street
New York, New York 10036
http://www.icp.org
Open House: Tuesday, January 11, 2011, 6:00 pm at ICP
The ICP-Bard Program in Advanced Photographic Studies, a two-year graduate program leading to a master of fine arts degree, integrates the practice, history, and critical study of photography with an emphasis on both academic study and field experience. The program, based in the heart of New York City, provides the basis for students to transform their photographic practice and to find effective new ways to apply this knowledge in their professional lives.
With faculty from ICP and Bard, the program offers students guidance from some of the best professionals at work today, as well as connections to accomplished artists in the field. Students also have rare behind-the-scenes access to the Museum, which houses one of the most important archives of photographs in the world. In the School, students are provided with state-of-the-art technical resources to foster their photographic explorations.
Q What would you say is different about ICP’s MFA program?
A Some other MFA programs train students for one very narrow kind of career once they leave the school. In effect they are training students to be cogs in a certain type of art world machine. Successful cogs, but still … I like to think we’re helping students to find a variety of ways to make images and to make their way in the world. ICP was founded by a photographer as a way to support the work of his peers. We train students to continue that tradition, by involving them in internships with a variety of different artistic institutions, by training them to write and think critically about the work of other photographers, and by having them organize their own shows, events, and publications.
In other places, the notion is that you are stuck in your studio alone until it’s time to graduate. We’ve created a vibrant, challenging community that brings students into contact with the larger world of picture makers, editors, curators, and writers.
Q What would you say to people contemplating applying to the program?
A If you recognize that making art is a permanent part of who you are and you are serious about your intentions to improve and become more sustainable in your practice, then it’s definitely worth it to invest in yourself and your own education.
Chair
Nayland Blake is an internationally acclaimed interdisciplinary artist and educator whose work is included in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Des Moines Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the University Art Museum, Berkeley. He is represented by Matthew Marks Gallery in New York.
Core Faculty
Elizabeth Brown Marvin Heiferman
Nancy Davenport Joshua Lutz
Moyra Davey Christopher Phillips
David Deitcher Carol Squiers
Edward Earle Brian Wallis
Previous Visiting Artists and Critique Faculty
Vince Aletti
Shimon Attie
Robert Beck
Robert Blake
Barbara Bloom
Gregg Bordowitz
Marco Breuer
Deborah Bright
Adam Broomberg
Oliver Chanarin
Cecilia Dougherty
Mark Alice Durant
Joy Episalla
Barbara Ess
Roe Ethridge
Larry Fink
Joan Fontcuberta
Andrea Fraser
Adam Fuss
Lyle Ashton Harris
Jaqueline Hassink
Bill Jacobson
Justine Kurland
Mary Lucier
Mary Mattingly
Susan Meiselas
Alison Morely
Barbara Nitke
Steve Pyke
Martha Rosler
Sam Samore
Alessandra Sanguinetti
Gary Schneider
Stephen Shore
Taryn Simon
Lorna Simpson
David Levi Strauss
Kunié Sugiura
Hank Willis Thomas
Guy Tillim
Francesc Torres
James Welling
